QUOTE(Takudan @ Oct 7 2024, 05:43 PM)
Top up: personal hygiene/grooming also very important.... The following (combination of) traits are turnoffs:
- visibly black/yellow teeth
- unkempt hair (long and messy)
- balding hair (not a hygiene thing but I'm sorry, I just can't 🙈)
- old and/or baggy clothes like ones you'd wear to sleep. Okay, please don't take "casual wear" too literally and meet people in your comfort pyjamas?! It's like giving extra unnecessary reasons to the other party to deduct your first impression marks...
People who say "looks don't matter" are ones who haven't had the chance to see the ugliness that they cannot accept

I personally learned my lesson back when I met up with guys from dating apps... And it was during the pandemic so I personally experienced the
horror when a dude took off his mask... Damn.
"Never judge a book by its cover" is only valid after you knew that person, number 1 people will always judge by appearance first. 2 guys, 1 dressed nice neat tidy and clean, another one messy with oversized clothing. Obviously ladies prefer the neat and tidy dude though that dude might be broke while the baggy clothes dude rich as F, they don't even bother to at least give the baggy dude a chance because of how he dressed up.
Like you said, looks does not matter until you encountered 1.